the Government of Pedro Sánchez has reactivated the reform aimed at tightening the requirements for creating new universities in Spain, after the Supreme Court annulled last October the royal decree that had been approved a year earlier. The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, led by Diana Morant, has opened a new period of public information that will remain active until December 2, 2026, three days after the general elections of 29N, which prevents the regulations from being approved before the polling day.
The initiative seeks to strengthen oversight over the creation of public and private universities, especially in aspects related to the number of students, the qualification of teaching staff, research activity and the financial solvency of the institutions. The executive wants to prevent university projects from being authorized that do not provide sufficient academic or financial guarantees, as well as to prevent the autonomous communities from giving the green light to certain centers despite having unfavorable assessments of their quality.
However, none of these new requirements can currently be considered approved under the 2025 reform, since the Supreme Court annulled the Royal Decree 905/2025, of October 7, for irregularities in its drafting procedure. The court decision did not question the content of the requirements, but rather the justification used by the Government to process the regulation through the urgent procedure and to dispense with the prior public consultation.
The new project recovers a large part of the conditions of the text that was annulled and modifies the framework established in the Royal Decree 640/2021, which regulates the creation, recognition and authorization of universities. The Ministry argues that the reform is necessary in light of the growth of private centers and the expansion of university education via the Internet.
The new requirements: 4,500 students, research and PhD professors
One of the most significant changes in the project is the requirement that new universities present a plan that allows them to exceed the 4,500 students enrolled in official degrees during their first six years of activity. The Ministry’s goal is to ensure that the centers have sufficient size to sustain their facilities, hire teaching staff, and develop teaching and research activities.
The proposal also establishes a minimum academic offering of ten degrees, six university master’s programs, and three doctoral programs, with the presence of at least three of the five major branches of knowledge. In this way, the Executive seeks to strengthen the multidisciplinary character of the institutions and prevent certain projects from concentrating exclusively on a limited offering of qualifications.
Another of the pillars of the reform is research. Universities shall dedicate at least 5% of their budget to research and knowledge-transfer programs, in addition to attracting resources from calls, research projects, and equivalent research contracts, as a minimum, amounting to 2% of their annual budget.
These obligations aim to ensure that centers do not limit themselves to teaching classes, but also develop sufficient scientific activity. The proposal includes follow-up mechanisms and corrective measures in the event of noncompliance, which could even affect the authorization for the universities to operate.
In relation to teaching staff, the text requires that at least 50% of the teachers of degrees and master’s programs are doctors. It also establishes that a minimum of 60% of the doctor professors with more than six years since obtaining the degree have achieved a positive evaluation of their research activity.
The Government also intends to strengthen the transparency of private institutions. The promoters must prove that they have sufficient financial resources through bank guarantees or other legally accepted guarantees, submit feasibility plans, and specify who the people responsible for its management are, including their possible ties with business groups or investment funds.
The reform also provides that universities provide mechanisms that allow their students to complete the qualifications started in the event of the closure of the center or the disappearance of any of its teachings.
ANECA will have a decisive role and control of online universities will be tightened
One of the main changes affects the authorization procedure. The Government wants the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), or the competent regional agencies, to issue a mandatory and binding report on the new university projects.
In practice, this means that a negative assessment of the competent agency would prevent authorizing the university through the ordinary procedure, compared with the previous model, in which the autonomous communities could continue processing despite receiving certain unfavorable technical reports.
The project also introduces a specific treatment for the universities that provide more than 80% of their teaching activity in virtual or hybrid mode. In general, their creation must be approved through a law of the Cortes Generales, with certain exceptions linked to linguistic characteristics or to autonomous funding.
In addition, these centers must ensure that at least 75% of their teaching staff resides in Spain or in another Member State of the European Union, except for the предусмотрed exceptions. The measure aims to strengthen guarantees of teaching coordination and academic monitoring in universities that offer distance education.
The new text also incorporates requirements related to facilities and student accommodation. Among them is the commitment to have a minimum accommodation capacity equivalent to the 10% of the places planned for certain operating courses, although this obligation includes exceptions and would not apply generally to universities that already exist.
Why the Supreme Court annulled the reform and what will happen after 29N
The origin of the impasse lies in the judgment of the Supreme Court of October 8, 2026, which upheld an appeal filed by the Government of the Balearic Islands against the royal decree approved in 2025.
The high court concluded that the Executive had not sufficiently justified the urgency used to approve the regulation, especially because this decision made it possible to omit the preliminary public consultation procedure. The judges considered that the political intention to achieve rapid entry into force did not, by itself, constitute an extraordinary cause that would justify dispensing with that procedure.
After learning of the ruling, the Government announced that it would once again push forward with the rule. The President, Pedro Sánchez, defended the need to strengthen university regulation and stated that "the uncontrolled proliferation of private universities harms the quality of our system and undermines equal opportunities."
The Ministry opened a first public consultation between October 15 and October 30 and has now initiated a second phase of hearings and public information, from November 12 to December 2.
This circumstance conditions the political calendar. The Executive has confirmed that it will not approve the royal decree before the general elections of November 29 and has indicated that, once public participation has concluded, it will assess the possibility of continuing with its processing.
The reform coincides with a period of expansion of the Spanish university system. According to data collected by the Ministry in October, Spain has 50 public universities and 49 private ones, in addition to a dozen new private projects that had already submitted their respective reports. The Government uses this development as an argument to reinforce supervisory mechanisms and demand homogeneous guarantees regardless of the ownership of the centers.
In any case, the project would not imply the automatic closure of universities that are already operating. The draft includes adaptation periods of three years for existing centers and five for those created more recently, along with other specific timelines for certain requirements.
Another initiative announced by Sánchez in September is added to this reform, aimed at toughening the quality conditions of university degrees, with proposals on the qualification and dedication of faculty and the in-person presence required in certain health courses. This is a separate project that also must not be confused with obligations already approved.
For now, the reform on the creation of universities remains pending completion of its processing. December 2 will be the next key date, when the public information period ends and the Ministry can assess the continuity of a project that was already annulled by the Supreme Court and whose future will also depend on the political scenario after the general elections.